But it's all fun! I'm pretty much done with the items for the Christmas in July event. If I do anything else it'll be extra.

Like I said before, thank God for the Cricut. That thing is chirping away as I cut out multiple layers of the shapes I need.

I did have to make one run to the craft store to get some teal and silver paper for the guitars. Gone are the days of baby blue and teddy bears! LOL

Anyhow, here's a look at my desk:

I am making these cute big flowers for the photo backdrop for the engagement party. They are so easy to make! I found this pdf off of Pinterest of the cards. I printed them for part of the centerpiece so I didn't have to purchase cards, but thought they would be great for these petals. I will make some plain white and red ones too. But these are so cool!! They measure about 13". I will attempt to make a couple bigger ones too. So fun!

Here's a shot of the bin that's holding the items for the engagement party.

Go HERE to check out the other work desks. Lunch Lady Jan is still hosting the WOYWW while Julia the regular host of the blog is recovering from a medical procedure. Since I started posted here, I have yet to correspond with her yet. I still wish her well on her recovery.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

I sure am enjoying the site WOYWW! Not only is it super cool to check out other people's work desks, it keeps me on track too.

If you read my blog, you know I've been preparing for a Christmas in July event in our town. It's a small event sponsored by Business Woman Connection. I'm excited to be a part of it since local contacts/customers are always a good thing!

So...welcome to my work desk:

I ordered notecards using my original mixed media artwork. I love the way they turned out. Here's a photo of the cards I have so far. I do plan on making some holiday themed cards as well but that's for another Wednesday LOL!

I put together two different sets. One set will have one of each floral design and the other will have one each of the "misc" cards. They will be available to purchase individually as well.

I just layered all these things together and ended up with something I liked. The white paper strips with glitter Washi were scraps from a tag project I made awhile ago. I just couldn't throw them out. I had them on my desktop and decided to use them. I used all scraps for this except the ribbon.

For those of you who saw my desk last Wednesday, here's a photo of the pop up cards that I was working on. They turned out so cute! I love using my Cricut...it just keeps paying for itself. I made three of each of these designs. If I have time, I will make more. (Stay tuned for an instructional post on how to put these together.)

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Fun Fact: Carly and I have been challenging ourselves with a Summer Reading Marathon for 17 years now! We started when Carly was six years old and now she's pushing the old age of 23! Right now she's ahead of me by one book, but I'm determined to push past her soon. We always start the first day after the last day of school (since we both work for the school district, this date still works for us) and the day before the start of the new school year.
The person who reads the most books gets treated by the other to Baskin Robbins. I know it's not much, but hey, it's the little things. AND we're talking ice cream which is the answer to everything.I love this time of year because I'm a total book nerd and LOVE going to the library. It has always been one of my favorite things to do. I remember as a girl, my sisters, neighborhood friends and I would go to the library and stock up with tons of books. We loved the Nancy Drew mysteries, Judy Bloom, Ramona Quimby and of course, the Little House on the Prairie books which will always be my favorite series. We would hang out and participate in all the Summer activities and of course, checked out music, magazines and other fun stuff available back in the 70's.
I'm so happy that my daughter also loves reading. The boys...not so much...but they do have a few that they love.

In honor of Summer Reading Marathon, here are some bookmarks that I'm making for a Christmas in July event at one of our local churches. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out. I purchased these plastic sleeves awhile ago but wasn't sure when or what I was going to do with them. The tassels were part of the stash of items I received from Rubber Paws. I made master boards on 8 1/2 x 11 pieces of white cardstock and just sprayed a variety of inks all over. On one master board, I stamped floral images (SU!) and the other I used the Elements I images (Lila Grey) all over. Once I cut them into strips, I matted with a piece of solid cardstock and embossed versus/quotes on them. Now I can kick myself for not buying more of the sleeves - I only bought 25.

Rubber Paws; My sister's Sister-in-Law - read more about her.Lila Grey StampsStampin' Up; My demonstrator is Carole Parson from South Carolina. If you don't have a demonstrator, visit her "store" and shop there! Check out her blog HERE

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Good morning! It’s Wednesday so you know what that means WOYWW! Time to post a
photo of my work desk and share what I’m working on. The link is being hosted by Jan temporarily. Click on the link below to read all about it and check out some of these work areas. You never know where you're next inspiration will come from!

I’m preparing items for a Christmas in July event at one of
our local churches.It’s a small event,
but I do want to have some variety of items to sell. Yes, I know, talk about waiting till the last minute.Thankfully I have some stock that I keep on hand for these events.

I thought I'd focus on cards so I'm making some POP UP cards. Right now, I'm working on the elements of the cards that will be "popping up". Once you get the idea of the POP UP, the boxes come together pretty easy. This is a great project for using paper scraps.To see pop up cards I've made in the past, check out this link.To check out what other artists are doing, go to the WOYWW site. And if it's Wednesday, link a photo of your work area and join the fun!These cuts are from the Create a Critter II cricut cartridge and Mickey and Friends.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Next month, we're hosting an Engagement Party for my son and his fiancé. They are getting married in Vegas so we decided to do a Vegas/casino theme for the engagement party.

I posted a photo of the invitations earlier and you can see them here.

I'm entering this on the Decorate to Celebrate challenge site. Visit their site HERE.

Here's a banner that I made.

I'm going to make one more for the bar area. I haven't started yet, but I know it's basically going to say BAR BAR BAR. You know, like they hit the jackpot! HA HA! Love it!

I had a great idea for the table centerpieces but I made a sample and hated it. Good thing I didn't invest $$ in supplies. I wanted to cover a Styrofoam ball with rolled tissue flowers and then place that on a candlestick, but it was UGLY!! I even closed one eye, squinted and looked again, but it was still UGLY! And it wasn't as easy as it looked on Pinterest. So, I'm back to the drawing board.

I may fall back on my "old reliable" which is decorated stakes and flowers in mason jars. I'll take a trip to Pinterest and come up with something else. We still have some large cards left from the invitations...hmmm...stay tuned.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

I stumbled upon the Stamping Ground blog the other day, but it wasn't on a Wednesday so I needed to wait to post. This person started this blog to see what others were working on. She just celebrated her seventh year with the blog. Pretty cool!

So...drumroll...here's my desk. I don't know how I manage to create things on it when it's so full but I swear sometimes it's clear.

When creating mixed media pieces, I seem to pull out everything but the kitchen sink. I started this project with a previously made background so I only had to add the snowman and some more details.

I just started making printed notecards from my original mixed media pieces. I love the way they are turning out and will be gifting these as well as selling them at craft boutiques and possibly etsy (if I get brave enough).

Thanks for checking out my workdesk. Click HERE to check out other workdesks and projects and if it's Wednesday, join the link party!

Monday, June 6, 2016

I skipped a year, but decided to enter a couple of pieces this year. The first one is a mixed media piece featuring Lila Grey's daisy Flower of the Month and the second was in photography. Anyone who knows me, knows I am one of the worst photographers, but I took a great photo of the Grand Tetons from the Elk Reserve in Jacksonhole Wyoming. I love this photo so I decided to take a chance and enter it.

Third Place for the mixed media piece and Honorable Mention for the photo.

At first I thought, ok, honorable mention is the same as "participant", but then realized that not every piece entered had a ribbon. So, yes it really is a Honorary Mention and something to be proud of! So, even though it wasn't a First Place, I'm still 3 for 3 on my Fiesta entries.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

I love this month's flower! So far my favorite has been the daisy, but these roses were a lot of fun to play with as well! Click here to see the many Flower of the Month digi stamps from Lila Grey Stamps.

After applying gesso all over the piece, I decided to go with a black/white/gray background. So, I used an old credit card to apply gray paint throughout. Then I applied black paint with an old sponge and my fingers. Many of the marks are made by swirling the sponge in a circular motion and left over paint from my fingers.

I then used a barbed wire stencil to apply some white paint over the black.

At that point, I decided to work on the flowers. I applied gelato on an acrylic block and added some water to loosen the color. I also used a water brush to apply the color to the image. I just painted in a circular motion making sure to color each petal individually. I then used the same gelato directly to the flower edges and smudged the color. I used a watercolor pencil in a similar color for the inside petal lines. White Uni-ball Signo pen for the stamen in the center of each rose.

I used green watercolor paint and pencil for the leaves. I made the mistake of using a light green (almost yellow) gelato on the first leaf. Since I didn't like the look and didn't want all my leaves to be that color, I stopped but then realized it looked a little odd so I added more of that color on a few more leaves here and there. I also decided to use a black fine point Uni-ball pen to outline the leaves and add some swirly lines and dots here and there.

More details:
Music note background stamp by Stamp Oasis and Pink Passion SU! ink on the roses.
Elements 2 stamp for black circles on upper left side (Yes, folks these are the stamps designed by yours truly for Lila Grey Stamps)
Script stamp and black archival ink

The amazing small dots on the left side were made by using the CTMH stamp cleaner brush. This was a happy accident. I was cleaning the script stamp with the cleaner and was blotting the brush dry on a paper towel and saw this great image...so I blotted off the rest on the actual piece!

The best thing about playing is you get to find all these hidden treasures!